America's Unique Deaf Stories; Established 1996; 23rd year

A deaf actor said it is very difficult toget roles only for the reason no one writesin these deaf roles in their productions.Also, very difficult to communicate withfellow actors and directors during rehearsalsand filming productions. They have neverworked with a deaf actor before andare afraid to do so.

— bad quality captioning software

Many agencies use captioning software knowingthat quality is bad. They try to save money,saying their captions comply with ADA rules,regardless of quality with it. A big shame!

— anti-deaf customer

A hearing customer went to a coffee cafe and was angryto see deaf people being employed, brewing andserving coffee. The angry customer confronted theowner, promising never to buy coffee again fromhis cafe. A facebook page showed the postingof the anti-deaf customer. It did not takeplace in USA but in the Philippines!

The Rocky Mountain ADA Center said there was nointerpreter on weather emergency news duringlast week’s Bomb Cyclone weather that hitColorado Springs hard. What was the excuse?The director of the Pikes Peak Regional Officeof Emergency Management said no time toget an interpreter – plus – too dangerous tobring the interpreter to the TV studio.The ADA center said excuse is not valid.

— an important job not heavily in demand

An important job that not too many businessesand agencies hire is ADA/disability rights specialist.This may be the reason for so many ADA lawsuits!

— can talk but prefer notes

At a museuem in Georgia, there was a deafnesstheme and a late-deafened artist created a programthat emphasized communications through notesinstead of voice. This purzled DeafDigest becausethe artist became deaf because of a childhoodaccident, yet was still able to continue with hisspeech skills. If a deaf person still can speak, sowhy ask for note-taking communications?

NASA does not know its own deaf history. It continuesto say they have its first deaf engineer in Johanna Lucht.NASA has had deaf engineers in the past – Richard Dawes,graduate of Florida School for the Deaf and Blind andalso of University of Florida. The other deaf engineerwas Thomas Wheeler, who attended Alabama School forthe Deaf and Blind and also of University of Alabama.There may have been several more others in the past!

The newspaper story today said:

Johanna Lucht, the first NASA engineer who is deaf

First? NASA does not do its own deaf homework

— fake-deaf in trouble in South Korea

The The Military Manpower Administration ofSouth Korea is angry. This agency caughteight hearing men of faking their deafnessto avoid serving military service!

— Crazy Clowns in Germany

Clowns are supposed to make people laugh.But a group of street clowns in Gelsenkirchen,a town in northern Germany, is not somethingfunny. They attacked a deaf person who waswalking in downtown. There was no reason forthis attack. They ran away, but just hope thepolice will find them and bring them to justice.

In a Forbes magazine article, the issue discussedwas – what is the best? Hearing people decidingwhat is the best – better kitchen stuff, betterapps, better ATMs, etc? These great productsare not deaf-friendly and therefore, not reallythe best!

— Starbucks and the deaf

Starbucks just announced the opening of its30,000th store in the world. It also saidit was proud of its first deaf-friendlystore in Washington, DC, within walkingdistance of Gallaudet University. Is Starbucksplanning to open a second deaf-friendlystore in Rochester, NY, within walking distanceof NTID?

— a request hard to believe

A video stream producer posted this request ona web site, looking for a volunteer captioner.Very hard to believe that it was posted. Captioninga video is not an easy task. No one wants to volunteerfor difficult tasks, captioning included.

One of Davideo’s projects is the comic strip, THE OLD FOGEYS. This strip focuses on tongue-in-cheek comedy, representing a revival of the old classic humor of days gone past combined with today’s Deaf Issues and Deaf Concerns. Email: DAVIDEO@satx.rr.com Web: http://www.davideo.tv